This was the Gil Gray Circus that performed in the Midwest complete with John Herriott's Elephants, Camels, Llamas and Ponies. The circus features the Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers, youthful stars of the ABC network TV show that carries the Mickey Mouse name. With the talented youngsters are Jimmie Dodd (the "Grand Mouseketeer") as Ringmaster of the circus, and Roy Williams {the "Big Mooseketeer") as the Circus Strong Man.
This Is How Disneyland Looked In 1955
Dateline: July 11, 2016
Status: Current
Source: Orange County Register
When Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, there were sections of it that were not done. A reporter noticed all the construction still ongoing and asked Walt Disney if Disneyland would ever be finished. Disney replied in what has become an oft quoted quote: "Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world."
Disney was true to his
Disneyland The Exhibit Takes A Ride Through 60 Years Of History
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Dateline: May 12, 2015
Status: Archive
Source: Los Angeles Times
Here's a challenge: Try to condense 60 years of Disneyland history into a single museum-like exhibit.
That's the test facing Becky Cline, Walt Disney Archives director. She's putting the finishing touches on "Walt Disney Archives Presents - Disneyland: The Exhibit," which in August will attempt to encompass the theme park's past six decades for D23 Expo, Disney's
World War II Veteran's Wife Was Disney's Secretary During 1950s
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Dateline: January 09, 2014
Status: Archive
Source: Desert Sun
When my colleague Denise Goolsby was interviewing a World War II veteran not long ago, she couldn't wait to tell me that his wife, Dorothy Wrigley, had been Walt Disney's secretary for five years during the 1950s. She was there for the development, building and opening of Disneyland - and so much more.
Being able to sit down with her and talk about Walt and the
A Brief History Of Disneyland, An American Classic
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Dateline: July 05, 2011
Status: Archive
Source: breitbart.com
"The thing will get more beautiful year after year. And it will get better as I find out what the public likes; I can't do that with a picture it's finished and unchangeable before I find out whether the public likes it or not." Walt Disney on Disneyland.
Walt Disney found different reasons to build his seventeen million dollar Magic Kingdom in Anaheim in 1955.
Graveyards At Disneyland Weird Finds At The Happiest Place On Earth
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Dateline: December 07, 2010
Status: Archive
Source: AOL News
You may be distracted by the holiday lights and decorations at Disneyland this time of year, but if you look closely, lots of weird secrets are waiting to be discovered all over the iconic amusement park.
Strodder told AOL News that one of his weirdest discoveries while researching Disneyland was finding out just how many graveyards are actually scattered throughout the
Disneyland At 55 Still A Marvel In Southern California
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Dateline: September 25, 2010
Status: Archive
Source: sandiego.com
Disneyland, which celebrated its 55th birthday in July, drew more than 1,300 rabid devotees to a two-day, sometimes irreverant, sometimes reverential convention starting Friday at the Disneyland Hotel.
Being a Disney fan, I was there, feverishly taking notes in the dark as "Disney Legends," men and women who made Disneyland what it is today, pop singers and
I Love You, Baby, But The Season's Over Part 2
Dateline: May 01, 2010
Status: Current
Source: MickeyMousePark.com
The Mickey Mouse Club Circus
Opened Friday, November 25th 1955
Well, here it was opening day at Disneyland! This was no longer the mud show with the misnomer of The Show Beautiful. This was the Mickey Mouse Club Circus everything perfect to the last detail. Every piece of rigging was shining, every costume clean and bright, each animal and person groomed to
I Love You, Baby, But The Season's Over Part 1
Dateline: April 04, 2010
Status: Current
Source: MickeyMousePark.com
Winter Quarters
October 20, 1955
At age 17, I graduated from Dorchester High School in Boston in and soon ran away from home to join my older brother, Tony, who was a flying trapeze artist with the Gil Gray Circus, traveling throughout the Mid-west and South.
I had started with the show in mid July, playing 25 dates in 77 days, traveling through seven
Disney History President Sends Turkeys To Disneyland
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Dateline: November 21, 2009
Status: Archive
Source: Orange County Register
Take a look at what happened this week in Disney history:
Nov. 24, 1955: Mickey Mouse Club Circus, starring Jimmie Dodd and many of the original Mouseketeers, premieres in Fantasyland (it will become one of the shortest lived attractions at the Park, closing January 8, 1956).
Nov. 24, 1955: "Christmas Show Parade" kicks off its first holiday season at the Park
New Book Covers Disneyland From A To Z
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Dateline: July 24, 2008
Status: Archive
Source: Orange County Register
'The Disneyland Encyclopedia' features entries on popular attractions, trivia and insider secrets.
Like most of us, Chris Strodder vividly remembers his first trip to Disneyland, a journey to the Magical Kingdom from Northern California in the 1960s.
"The overall impression was a whirlwind of sensations, of sights and sound and smells," he says of that visit as
For Her, He Was Dad, Not Uncle Walt
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Dateline: June 19, 2005
Status: Archive
Source: TheReporter.Com
To millions around the world, he was known as Uncle Walt, but to one Napa resident, he was simply Dad.
As Disneyland celebrates its 50th anniversary, Walt Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, agreed to sit down and reminisce. She talked about her father's life and a special gift she's planning at San Francisco's Presidio to honor his memory.
Walt Disney was
In Step With The Mouse, Disneyland's Opening Was A Wild Adventure
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Dateline: April 16, 2005
Status: Archive
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
No one said magic would be easy. Still, 50 years later, what almost no one remembers is the opening day that stumbled like Dumbo dancing in leg irons.
When the widely anticipated, but hardly completed, Disneyland opened its doors on July 17, 1955, so eager was the world to share Walt Disney's dream that instead of 6,000 invited guests, more than 28,000 people - most
Disneyland Turning 50
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Dateline: September 26, 2004
Status: Archive
Source: Knight-Ridder
Here's the deal with Disneyland. The two women ahead of me in line were Elizabeth and Lexi, twins fromWinnetka, Ill. Elizabeth is a communications and political science major at the University of Southern California. Lexi is a philosophy major atYale.
They knew the words to ''We Can Fly,'' a song from Walt Disney's ''PeterPan.'' It's the song the chorus sings when
Big Show At Low Prices
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Dateline: December 18, 1955
Status: Archive
Source: Pasadena Independent
Walt Disney's circus is one of the greatest values in Big Top history, show business surveys revealed last week.
Once inside Disneyland, general admission tickets are only 50 cents. Reserved section tickets are $1.
Admission to Disneyland with all its brilliant Christmas season music and decorations -- remains $1 for adults and 50 cents for children.
The
Disneyland Hosts Great Circus During Yuletide
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Dateline: December 18, 1955
Status: Archive
Source: Pasadena Independent
One or history's most remarkable circus events now is playing In the "magic kingdom" of Disenyland.
It is the fast-moving, colorful "Mickey Mouse Club Circus," produced by Walt Disney at a cost in excess of $300,000.
Featured in Holidayland-Disney's newest realm--the circus is inaugurating the first annual Christmas Festival at Disneyland with all the romance
Holiday Parade At Disneyland Disney Davy Lead Yule Parade
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Dateline: November 25, 1955
Status: Archive
Source: Independent Press Telegram
Two of the entertainment figures in the nation - Walt Disney and Fess Parker -- co-starred as -grand marshals in the spectacular circus parade at Disneyland Thanksgiving Day to open Christmas festivities here.
Beginning at noon the parade was headed by a color guard from Town Square and progressed down Main St, around the Plaza and into Holidayland.
THIS NEW
Big Top Goes Up At Disneyland
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Dateline: November 20, 1955
Status: Archive
Source: Independent Press Telegram
"SHAKE IT! Shake it!" the echoed across Disneyland as circus workers and Mouseketeers joined hands to raise the Big Top of the Mickey Mouse Club Circus, a feature attraction of the Christmas season at Disneyland opening Thanksgiving Day.
The cry to the workers to "shake it" was to help the huge tent float on air bubbles and relieve some of the effort required to
Heralded by a circus parade down Main Street. During the parade, a black panther grabbed the paw of a tiger in the next cage and chewed it off. When the procession of circus wagons entered the big top for the first performance, the second vehicle clipped one of the tent pegs and an entire section of the roof caved in. During the trapeze act, a well endowed artist's halter strap broke and her top fell. And since she had to hold onto the trapeze, there wasn't much she could do about it. Finally, two llamas got loose and ran through the bleachers. The crew chased them down the railroad track and captured them at the Main Street Station. Walt, in the front row with the Mouseketeers, buried his face in his hands. Then there were the temperamental camels, who loved to spit, the surly circus performers, whose cussing, drinking and gambling proved quite un-Disneylike. There were more than 2,000 seats, but no performance filled even a fourth of them.
The Disney staff flew to see Gil Gray Circus in the Midwest and wound up taking the entire show to Disneyland, complete with John Herriott's Elephants, Camels, Llamas and Ponies.
The circus could hold 2500 guests
There were two 75-minute performances a day, including Christmas and New Year's.
Ted DeWayne coordinated the circus acts
The shows were staged by Hal Adelquist.
The circus was dogged by operational problems and poor attendence.
Jimmie Dodd was the Ringmaster, Roy Williams the Strongman, and Bob Amsberry played Bob-O the Clown . The Mouseketeers, and some of their moms as well, performed in a variety of roles, including as clowns, "wild" animals, aerialists, and took part in the grand parade, where the girls dressed as Tinker Belle and the boys as Peter Pan.
Big Top cost over $30,000.
Flying Alexanders and their amazing aerial presentation.
Christmas Circus:
Living Toys, representing the beloved Disney creations of many years, march around the hippodrome, Leading the parade is Mickey Mouse with Minnie, Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy, and the galaxy of Disney stars.As the Toys march, a giant Christmas tree rises from the center ring and meets a sparkling star high in the tent.Jingling bells announce the-appearance of Santa Claus who arrives in a magnificent golden sleigh pulled by teams of matched ponies.
Included is the Steam Calliope, the Beauty Wagon, the Whiskers Wagon, the White Ticket Wagon, the Swan Band Wagon the Green Cage, the Swan and Fawn, and the Shell Tab.
